Pope confesses that he took cross of his late confessor

By The Associated Press

Thursday, March 6, 2014

VATICAN CITY >> Pope Francis confessed Thursday that he took the cross of the rosary of his deceased confessor when the priest laid in the coffin. Francis said he carries it this day in a bag under his cassock, praying and hoping to possess half the mercy that the late priest had.

Francis made the announcement in an informal meeting with Roman priests about the need to be compassionate with the faithful. He told the story of a “great confessor” in Buenos Aires who listened to the confessions of the majority of priests there, and even of Pope John Paul II when he visited Argentina.

When the priest died, Francis came to pray at his open coffin. He said that he saw the rosary in the late priest’s hands and, while he was fixing the flowers he had brought, he took the cross from the rosary. That’s when he asked God to give him the virtue of mercy.

The pontiff said that when he arrived where the coffin was, he was astonished that no one had brought flowers.

“This man had forgiven the sins of all the priests of Buenos Aires and not had a single flower,” he recalled. That is why he bought a bouquet of roses, and, when he returned to fix them around the coffin, he saw the rosary that the priest had in his hands.

“And every time I [have] struck some evil thought about someone, my hand is directed there, always,” he said, pointing his heart. “And I feel the grace and that makes me feel better.”